Investing in fire safety at Norfolk's high rise buildings

A training exercise at a high rise building in Norwich was the latest piece of work carried out across Norfolk in response to the Grenfell Tower inquiry.

Following the tragic fire in June 2017, the subsequent and ongoing inquiry has produced many recommendations for fire and rescue services and other agencies.

As part of the work in Norfolk, the county's fire and rescue service has been working hard to learn from the inquiry and implement recommendations to improve both response to fires in tall buildings and engagement with residents and building owners to help prevent incidents from occurring.

The project received Government support of £74,000 which allowed the service to directly employ a member of staff to lead the changes and to purchase equipment to support our new procedures.

"We are all very aware of how quickly a situation can change and much has been learned during the Grenfell Tower inquiry, which shapes how services now interact with communities and how they would respond if high rise fires occur. We are fortunate to have been able to put our learning into regular practice with such training exercises and to have receive the great support we have from our communities. Working together really can save lives," said Councillor Margaret Dewsbury, Cabinet Member for Communities and Partnerships at Norfolk County Council.

Norfolk Fire & Rescue Service has been:

• Working closely with local authorities, social housing providers and building management companies to engage with their residents to help them stay safe in their flats
• Supporting those responsible for tall buildings to understand the changing legislation and fire safety guidance to help them keep their buildings safe
• Purchasing specialist equipment and developing new systems to help us manage an evacuation, although we hope that the work we have done means we should never need to do that

Finally, the service has introduced new procedures for dealing with incidents in tall buildings, from a small fire to a full evacuation, which will help crews save lives and put out fires more effectively and safely.

These procedures have been tested during a number of training exercises in recent months, the more recent being at Pablo Fanque House in All Saints Green, Norwich, on Wednesday 30 March.

Chief Fire Officer Tim Edwards said: "All of our crews have received training in these new procedures and this exercise was the culmination of that training for the crews that work around Norwich, where the majority of our tall buildings are located."

Norfolk has more than 50 tall buildings and around 150 mid-rise blocks. Immediately following the Grenfell fire, the service thoroughly inspected all of the high risk blocks to ensure correct safety precautions and procedures were in place.